L R AS Published on Monday 7 September 2020 - n° 330 - Categories:placing on the market
The major developer of wind turbines goes solar
Ørsted, the world's offshore wind power giant, is also going solar.
By 2021, all of the company's new power plants will be installed on land (rather than at sea). Most of them will be equipped with
of solar panels. Ørsted is currently building two huge solar power plants in Texas and Alabama, totalling almost 700 megawatts. The 460 megawatt Permian Energy Center in West Texas is particularly noteworthy. It will sell its solar energy to ExxonMobil and includes a 40-megawatt battery system. The company could even be one of the first American developers in 2021.
Ørsted is making this change because solar is the fastest growing power generation technology in the world. Its focus on solar power has already accelerated its role as a developer of energy storage. This is likely to continue. Most new terrestrial renewable energy projects will eventually include energy storage.
The company is moving towards solar because more and more corporate customers want suppliers of this energy. It believes that there are more opportunities in solar than there were before for it.
When the Permian Energy Center comes on line next year, Ørsted will be the first company to own plants in solar, onshore wind, offshore wind and battery storage in the United States.
The company believes that the health crisis has caused small developers to lose markets as they struggle to obtain development and equity capital. It believes there will be many buyout opportunities over the next six to nine months.
GreenTech Media of 2 September
Editor's note The fact that Ørsted is moving towards solar power indicates that the wind turbine's prospects are not bright enough against solar power. This is the best indication that solar energy is a sector with a future.
